Where the Heck Was the Issue of Gun Rights in the GOP Debate?

Where the Heck Was the Issue of Gun Rights in the GOP Debate?

Other than a zinger from Rand Paul about “not wanting my marriage or my guns registered in Washington” – there was very little talk about who supports the NRA, the 2nd Amendment or gun rights in general at the first GOP debate on Thursday night.

(Yo Rand – did you have to throw the gay marriage thing in there with the gun rights?)

They include Democrats, and you may be interested, but they do a full run-down on Republicans if you scroll down:

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R)

AP/Phelan M. Ebenhack

Bush has an “A+” rating from the National Rifle Association (the group gives politicians a grade based on how they vote on gun legislation) and has consistently been opposed to stricter gun laws.

“I have a message for the Obama administration,” Bush said at an NRA conference in Nashville in April. “Why don’t you focus more on keeping weapons out of the hands of Islamic terrorists and less on keeping weapons out of the hands of law-abiding Americans?”

Bush signed Florida’s so-called “stand your ground” legislation into law as governor, legislation that was thrust into the national spotlight after the 2012 shooting of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin. That law was used in Zimmerman’s defense.

Bush defended “stand your ground” laws at the NRA meeting in April.

“In Florida you can defend yourself anywhere you have a legal right to be,” Bush said. “You shouldn’t have to choose between being attacked and going to jail.”

US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina)

Graham told CBS News following the Charleston shooting that he is “open-minded” to the modification of current gun laws. He voted against the 2013 Senate legislation that would have expanded background checks for gun purchases after the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012.

When asked if there is any solution to gun violence, Graham told CBS “just being able to track people — put them into systems where they can be deterred or stopped.”

“It’s very complicated in a nation of 300 million people where you have freedom of movement and freedom of thought — 300 million of us and unfortunately every now and then, something like this happens,” Graham added. “And we’ll see. But I think usually it’s some disturbed person with a gun. That’s what, usually, these things are.”

Graham has said he owns several firearms.

US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)

Darren McCollester/Getty Images

Ted Cruz has an “A+” rating from the NRA and has firmly expressed support for Second Amendment rights.

“The Second Amendment to the Constitution isn’t for just protecting hunting rights, and it’s not only to safeguard your right to target practice,” Cruz has said, per the New York Times. “It is a Constitutional right to protect your children, your family, your home, our lives, and to serve as the ultimate check against governmental tyranny — for the protection of liberty.”

Like many other Republican colleagues, Cruz voted against moving forward on the 2013 Senate legislation to expand background checks.

US Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky)

Reuters/Jim Young

Paul has an “A” rating from the NRA and is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. After the Charleston shooting, he said government wouldn’t be able to “fix” a “sickness in our country.”

“What kind of person goes into church and shoots nine people?” Paul said at a Faith and Freedom summit in Washington, D.C. “There’s a sickness in our country. There’s something terribly wrong. But it isn’t going to be fixed by your government. It’s people straying away, it’s people not understanding where salvation comes from. I think if we understand that, we’ll have better expectations of what to expect from government.”

Paul also voted against moving forward on the 2013 Senate background-check legislation.

US Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida)

Steve Pope/Getty Images

Rubio has an “A” rating from the NRA, thanks in part to a bill he introduced into the Senate at the end of March. That bill, called the “Second Amendment Rights in the District of Columbia” Act, would amend D.C. gun laws and make it easier for individuals to obtain firearms.

“While the president did propose some reasonable measures, I’m disappointed, yet not surprised, to see so much emphasis on gun control and not enough on key contributors to mass shootings — mental illness and the impact of the entertainment industry’s glorification of violence,” he said.